The Changing Role Of The Music Performer

It use to be simple. In the past bands and artists would play gigs or concerts to an audience and get paid.

However, with the emergence of turntablism as a popular performance act in the 1980s DJs were the new breed of performer. They seamlessly blended disparate textures to create a unique new sound, despite not actually using any traditional instrumentation, or having any artistic credits on the records they played.

Roll on a couple decades and you had (and still have) X-Factor, a show that makes regular people's dreams of pop superstardom turn into a reality. At least for a short while. Contestants perform to a panel of judges who decide whether they have the credentials to be a pop star, and culminates with many of them being voted off the show. Combine this with millions of primetime viewers and you have a major entertainment show. Some don't even watch it for the best singers - many of the bad singers are just as entertaining. However, because the stakes are so high many contestants are totally devastated when they lose (and the few that win are beyond ecstatic).

With the power of the Internet there is now a website where artists and bands all over the world can perform to a virtual audience. Artists and bands on Stageit.com can create and perform interactive monetized shows to audiences all over the world who are willing to pay. This gives a different meaning to performance, but also takes away the real interaction with fans and listeners.

These three examples show how changing technologies and new forms of entertainment have had a revolutionary change in the way a musician performs to its audience.